Shameful
by Ballistica
Summary: When Lip gets expelled, Fiona convinces him to go back to school rather than move out. Events of Shameless are moved from South Side, Chicago to Skid Row, Los Angeles. Story starts at the end of Season 2 Episode 8 of Shameless.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

Fiona was enjoying a somewhat peaceful day at home. All the kids were out of the house, save for Liam, so it gave her some time to actually kick her feet up and breathe for the moment.

As soon as Fiona started to get comfortable she heard a knock at the door. She sighed in frustration over the fact that someone had to visit as soon as she had a chance to relax, but she did get up to answer the door.

As she opened the door she was met by the face of her old guidance counselor from high school, Mr. Healey.

"Miss Gallagher?" he said with a bit of a smile. Fiona smiled back.

"Yeah, come on in" she responded as she moved out of the way of the door frame. Mr. Healey entered the house slowly and turned back to face Fiona.

"I didn't know if you'd remember me" Mr. Healey said with a more serious expression on his face.

"Of course, Mr. Healey, how are you?" Fiona asked more out of courtesy rather than actual interest.

"Well, one more year till full pension, then it's taillights" he said with a smile. He was rather excited to leave all the delinquents at that god-awful school behind.

"Congrats, what's up?" Fiona asks, trying to speed the conversation along to the reason he came all this way.

With a sigh, Mr. Healey told Fiona about Lip's expulsion. Fiona put a hand to her temple at the coming headache from yet another problem being dropped at her feet.

"What?" Fiona exclaimed in frustraion.

"Threw a chair through a window." Mr. Healey elaborated.

"Come on though. Expelled?" Fiona asked, hoping there was some way that the whole problem could be avoided, but Mr. Healey began to elaborate more on Lip's conduct.

"...Smoking dope in the bathroom, telling teachers to F off..." Fiona was completely pissed. She went through the effort of studying for her GED, giving up valuable time she could be using to make more money for the winter just so Lip would get his ass out of bed and get back into school, only for him to fuck it up.

"...but I've called around to a few friends." Mr. Healey said. He began to rummage through his coat pockets. "I used to coach wrestling at Hollywood Arts." He pulled out a slip of paper with a phone number on it. "They'll take him if he can pass an audition, but they won't put up with any of his smart-ass stuff." he said, handing Fiona the slip of paper.

"You used to work at that place? Isn't it super exclusive?" Fiona asked while taking the slip and placing it in her pocket. Mr. Healey began to nod.

"It is. Usually impossible to even get an audition, but Lane is an old friend." He said.

"What kind of audition are we talking?" Fiona asked. She wasn't stupid, she was aware that Hollywood Arts was for kids who are crazy talented. Lip is crazy talented, but as far as she was aware, not in performing arts.

"Last semester, Lip took drama class as his art credit. So I talked to Mrs. Allen, the teacher, and she told me Lip showed a lot of talent, but when she tried to get Lip to audition for the play, he turned her down, saying he 'Wasn't a fairy.' And if that doesn't work, Lip could show off his mechanical skills. That kind of relates to tech-theater. You know, lights, set assembly, that sort of thing." Fiona sighed in some-what relief. She still had to worry about Lip making it into the school, but at least there was a shot.

"Thank you Mr. H" Fiona said as Mr. Healey as he started to see himself out. He opened the door and turned back to Fiona one last time.

"Don't let him screw it up Fiona." and with that he left, shutting the door behind him. Anger began to surge through Fiona as she thought about what she was going to say when Lip got back home.

It wasn't until that night after Fiona got back home from Carl's football game that Lip finally showed up at the house. Fiona immediately rounded on him to give him a piece of her mind.

"Hey," Fiona said, making her anger very blatant.

"Hey," Lip responded casually, making his way up the stairs.

"Expelled?" she asked, throwing her hands up as her temper rose. Lip refused to look her in the eye.

"You win."

"I win. That's all you have to say?"

"I lose?" Lip responded in a somewhat mocking manner.

"Well you're lucky for a loser. Mr. Healey got you into another school." she said as she started searching her pockets for the phone number she received earlier.

"Yeah, I'm not going." Lip said blowing her off.

"You are" she said with a lot of force in her voice.

"No I'm not!" Lip yelled back. Jimmy then tried to interrupt and deflate the argument.

"Guys, guys, calm down," he said, causing Fiona to get even more angry.

"Hey Jimmy, butt the fuck out!" she shouted pointing a finger in his face. She turned back around to face Lip.

"You are going back to school." she said with finality in her tone.

"I've done a year more than you."

"This isn't about me."

"So what, you want me to bust my ass, get a diploma and a high-paying job so I can buy you all houses and shit, while you lay around doing fuck all?"

"I'm down for that." Carl said, butting into their feud. Lip and Fiona ignored his comment.

"Why is that on me, huh?" Lip asked, waiting for an answer from his older sister. None came.

"Because I've done alright on some tests?" he continued to yell.

"I'll pull my own weight but I'm not gonna be the fucking golden goose!"

"Do you actually give a shit about your kid?" Fiona finally responded. This caught Lip off guard. He didn't see how Karen's pregnancy had anything to do with this.

"...What?" Lip finally said, making his confusion known. Fiona continued.

"If you really wanted to support that kid, you would realize that you have a shot to actually make his life great if you stick with school. You'd understand that you'll be stuck making minimum wage at a gas station and selling dope on a street corner just to buy diapers. You'd be better than Frank, but not by much." The comparison to their dad caused Lip to fluster. Fiona knew that ending up like their dad was one of Lip's biggest fears.

"Fuck you" Lip said as he ran upstairs.

It wasn't until close to midnight when Lip walked downstairs, much calmer than he was before, but still obviously frustrated. Everyone else was either gone or asleep, so it was only Fiona left in the living room, sitting on the couch.

Lip walked slowly over by Fiona and sat in the lounger next to the couch. The two just sat there a moment not looking at each other and not saying a word. It was then that Lip broke the silence.

"So what school are we talking?" he asked, finally looking Fiona in the eye. Fiona gave a small smile.

"Hollywood Arts."

"The school for crazy talented kids? How did Mr. H pull that off?" Lip asked, pulling out a cigarette, and offering one to Fiona as well.

"He apparently used to coach wrestling there. You're also not accepted yet. You just have an audition. If you pass that, you're in." she took the cigarette from Lip before lighting it.

"I don't have a performing talent Fiona."

"According to Mr. Healey, you did fantastic in drama class last year. That your teacher thought you were so good she tried to force you to be in the play before you-"

"-Said that I'm not a fucking fairy, yeah." Lip finished for her, taking a puff from his cigarette.

"Just do it Lip. I don't care if you go to this school and don't be in a play or sing a song or paint a fucking Picasso. I just want you to finish school." Fiona said. Lip took a moment to think.

"...I'll start looking for a scene to do." Lip said before getting up and moving towards the stairs. Before Lip was out of sight he said one last thing to his sister.

"By the way Fiona?"

"Yeah"

"Picasso was an artist, not an art piece."


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

"Lip… Lip!" Lip awoke with a jump from the yell of his name at such a close range. He rubbed his eyes and looked over to see his older sister standing next to the edge of his bunk with a look of worry on her face.

"Jesus, Fiona, what?" he threw his bed back onto his pillow and shut his eyes again. It was too early for him. He needed at least another hour before he could even think about leaving his bed. It was only the sound of rummaging downstairs that caused him to lift his head up again.

"Someone's downstairs, and Debbie and Liam are still in their rooms," Fiona said. Lip did a quick survey of the room noticing that Ian and Carl were still snoozing. This meant two things. Break in or Frank. But in Lip's mind, there wasn't much of a difference.

"I'll grab the bat," he said, hopping down from his bunk onto the cold floor. He threw on a pair of jeans before he left the room. If he was about to chase someone out of the house, he didn't want to be chasing them out in his boxers.

He walked out of the room and took a right down the messy hallway while Fiona took a left. He guessed Fiona would take the stairway to the kitchen, while he took the stairway to the living room.

"_better chance of catching the fucker," _he thought.

Lip walked down the cold steps, and took the bat that was hung to a nail on the wall. He held it with both hands and behind his head so he'd be ready to swing at a moments notice. He reached the bottom of the stairs before he heard Fiona say a word he really did not want to hear.

"Mom."

Lips jaw tightened and his brow furrowed. He threw the bat on the couch, and walked into the kitchen.

"We don't have any money," Fiona said.

"That means get the fuck out," Lip said, walking past her to the fridge. He was starting to get a headache and he really needed some orange juice. Of course, it was missing,

"Where's the orange juice?" Lip asked, looking around the kitchen. His eyes then moved to the kitchen table where Frank was holding the jug of orange juice in one hand and a beer in the other.

"Mimosa?" Frank offered. Lip walked over to Frank and snatched the jug from his hand. He immediately screwed off the cap and drank the juice straight from it.

Fiona's phone began to ring and Lip took the opportunity to slip back upstairs with his juice. Monica tried to take the moment to talk to him.

"How have you been hone-" but Lip had already started hopping up the staircase, completely ignoring his mother. Lip sighed. After the fight last night, he just wanted to spend a calm morning looking for a scene for his audition before he had to go to Carl's football game, and then a dinner with Karen and potential parents for his unborn kid.

He passed Ian on the way back to his room. He was rubbing the sleep from his eyes and rummaging through a pile of laundry that was stacked in the hallway.

"Have you seen my camo pants?" Ian asked.

"I think they're in the wash."

Ian stood and made his way towards the stairs. Lip thought it best to give his younger brother a warning.

"Good luck, Monica's downstairs," he said, taking a sip of his orange juice. Ian stopped in his tracks. A look of frustration crossed his face. Lip turned from his brother and returning to his room.

He hopped onto his bunk. He still had the family laptop on it from when he was surfing the internet for scenes late last night. Nothing really stood out to him. Just a bunch of annoyingly artsy scenes from plays like Julius Caeser, and The Importance of Being Earnest. He was sure the school probably received dozens of auditions from kids reciting scenes like this, hoping that their lack of talent would be covered up by the fancy words such as "Thy, thou," and so on. If Lip was going to do a scene, it was going to be something he liked.

The problem was that Lip didn't watch much theatre. He read books and watched movies whenever he could get control of the remote downstairs, but none really seemed like the kind he could recite for a serious acting audition.

Lip rubbed his temple at the frustration the whole endeavor was causing. Why couldn't Mr. Healey have just coached at a normal high school. Why the hell did Hollywood Arts even have a wrestling team? The place is for singers and actors, not athletes.

Lip spent the next few hours searching without much luck. It wasn't until Steve entered the room that he gave up looking for the moment. "I'll figure it out later" he told himself. Besides, Steve had a job for him.

"Lip, just the man I was looking for,"

"Oh yeah? Need me handcuffed to a chair for you again?" Lip asked, but the snark of his question flew over Steve's head as he moved onto what he wanted.

"You know how to hack a voicemail?"

"Yeah, for the right price, I guess. What do I get out of it?"

"I'll pay you a grand. Stop by my place in an hour."

"I don't even know where you live," Steve pulled a piece of paper and a pen. He jotted down an address for Lip before leaving with a quick "later."

Lip sighed. He could use the money, but his day was already pretty crammed and he still needed to find a scene to memorize before his audition tomorrow. But in the end, he decided to head over to Steve's anyway.

"Wow, this is nice," Lip said, taking in the apartment around him. The apartment was large for the city. Most apartments that ran for any reasonable price usually was a studio with the "kitchen" taking up most of the space. Here, there was room for a lot of extravagance like plants in the corner, expensive looking art pieces, multiple chairs and couches, and a bedroom.

"Estefania's dad," Steve said. Lip figured. No matter how many cars Steve stole, he wouldn't buy that this was actually his. This was drug lord level of nice.

"You do realize you two have basically the same name, right?" Lip asked with a smirk. It grew a little wider as he noticed the obvious look of disgust show itself on Steve's face.

"So, what you got for me?" Lip asked. Steve walked over to a laptop on the shelf, and handed it to Lip in return. He then rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Lip. On the slip was a phone number.

"I'm assuming you have a program for this," Steve said.

"Yeah, I'll just set up right here," Lip sat at a chair next to the couch at the end of the coffee table. He opened the laptop and began his work.

Lip stayed focused for about a half hour. His focus was only broken once Estefania left the bathroom. Lip's eyes immediately ditched his work as she was only wearing her underwear, before putting on a long-sleeved shirt that was very tight, and didn't quite cover her ass. With her back facing Lip, she looked over her shoulder to catch him staring and smiled.

Lip quickly forced his eyes back to the screen of the laptop. It was clear the brazillian had little to no modesty. In Lip's peripheral vision, he could see her lay on the bed, with her ass facing him. He took his eyes off the screen again to stare at the girl. After a few moments, he was hit in the back of the head with a pillow.

"Less ogling, more hacking." Steve instructed. He threw the pillow he used to strike Lip on the couch as he moved to grab his coaching jacket.

"Jesus, I'm on the voicemail box, I just need to figure out how to copy the messages without the people being able to tell they were listened to." Lip explained. "Wanna tell me what this is all about?"

"The less you know the better," Steve said. "So Fiona said you have to audition for a private high-school. What kinda uptight group of pricks are you looking to join?"

"Hollywood Arts,"

"I didn't know you were a performer."

"I'm not, but right now it's my only option. I've been working my ass off trying to find a scene to do, but all the ones google tells me to use are for fags and douchebags,"

"Then you should fit right in with those."

Lip laughed. Steve wasn't entirely wrong, but he didn't feel motivated to use any of those.

"Thanks, but I was kinda hoping something kinda different. Y'know, something that sticks out." Lip said. Steve sighed and sat on the couch next to Lip, taking a moment to think.

"Y'know when I was in school, I also took theater as my art credit." Steve said. "Me, and some of the other guys who just wanted an easy A didn't find out until after we signed up for the class that the school play was part of our final grade. So, when we auditioned we just picked stupid scenes from a movie we liked, and didn't think much of it..." Lip was having trouble seeing what Steve's point in this was.

"...There was this one kid named Dillon Carter. He did a scene in Lord of the Rings where Sam gives a speech to Frodo about happy endings. Had the teacher crying by the end." Lip thought for a moment. Lord of the Rings? It definitely wasn't something he'd figure many people would do. One thing he learned when he actually paid attention in theater was that it's apparently a big no-no to use a movie scene for audition or competition. People think it's cheap because they could just mimic an actor. But, it was better than any other idea he's had so far.

"Lord of the Rings?" Lip asked.

"Lord of the Rings, now I'm off to lead a pack of tiny testosteroned animals to victory. Gotta warm them up and give them my best Friday Night Lights speech about hearts and eyes, or some shit."

"Where go?" Estefania asked in broken english as she entered the room.

"To the game. Football," Steve tried to explain, making a ball shape with his hands in an attempt to get her to understand.

"I go," Estefania replied.

"Uhh, Lip, you mind bringing Este later?" Steve asked. Lip looked from Steve to Estefania with a smirk while biting his lip.

"What do you think?"

"Lip will bring you later. You go _con_ Lip." Steve said. Estefania looked at Lip with a bright smile.

"Ah, yes! I come on Lip!" Estefania said. Lip couldn't help but chuckle. He definitely wouldn't mind that.

"With! You come 'with' Lip," Steve explained before giving Estefania a kiss. He then made his way to the door, leaving Lip and his wife behind. Estefania kept her eyes on Lip for a moment with a smile. She then turned away and made her way back to the bed.

Estefania pulled out a cell phone and began talking in portuguese. Lip ignored her at first before he realized that Estefania was pleasuring herself as she spoke. Her voice was hot and heavy with every word, and Lip was way too curious for his own good.

Lip opened up another browser window and searched for an online translator. He finally found one that didn't cost any money and opened the program.

Just as he figured, she was having phone sex with another guy. Lip left his chair in favor of another on the other side of the living space, closer to the bed. He had to admit to himself that what she was saying was kinda getting him riled up. Especially when Estefania would steal some glances at Lip. He didn't look away. Lip listened in on the conversation until it was time to head to the game.

Lip showed up a little late after the first kickoff with Estefania in tow. The rec field was a mess with barely any grass that was alive, and bleachers that were rusted and broken from misuse. At this point, people only used them to fuck under rather than watch a game.

His family was definitely the loudest at the game. Gallaghers always supported each other. Well, that is if you didn't count Frank. Lip's mood immediately soured as he realized that Monica had come to the game as well.

"Lip, come sit with us!" Monica said in a preppy tone. Lip rolled his eyes.

"You actually let her come?" Lip asked Fiona. He didn't try to hide his displeasure. In fact, he emphasized it.

"I couldn't force her to stay away," Fiona said in her defense, throwing her hands up. Lip jaw clenched out of irritation that he'd have to spend time around his mother.

"Lip, don't be mad at Fiona, come on," Monica waved at Lip for him to sit next to her, but Lip wasn't having it.

"Monica, shut up! Alright, like most of my life, this has nothing to do with you." Estefania took the moment to cut it.

"I sit?" she asked Lip.

"Yeah, wherever." Estefania took a seat next to Fiona while Lip sat next to Ian. For the next hour, he cheered on his little brother as he pounded the opposing offense with tackles that would surely be illegal if there were actually referees.

Once the game wrapped up, he left Estefania with his family as he made his way to the subway. He had a dinner with Karen he was late for.

"Hey! Why don't you get your own fries." Karen said, swatting Lip's hand. Fortunately, Lip already grabbed a few fries.

"Cuz, I wanted to eat yours," he said in a teasing manner. "So, I was minding my own business, listening in on Estefania's phone call, and she's totally in love with another guy. Y'know, she's playing Steve." He could tell his gossip wasn't really fazing Karen too much.

"So?" she asked.

"So do you think I should tell him?"

"What's in it for you?"

"Well, it's not about me."

"Exactly, if there's no money involved, don't get other people's shit on your shoes."

"So, you're saying if I was rich, you'd consider keeping the kid with me?"

"How rich? Cuz if you were, there's no way you'd want to keep this kid."

"Well, whatever." Lip said taking a sip of his water. He didn't want to have this conversation again with her.

"So, you never told me what your sister did when she found out you were expelled." Karen said. Lip had forgotten to tell her. It had completely slipped his mind with how busy his day had been.

"Turns out Mr. Healey got me into another school," he said. "But I have to audition to get in."

"Audition?"

"Hollywood Arts."

"That's the school he got you into?" she said. "You may make straight A's but what the fuck do you know about art?" Her mocking tone was not lost on Lip. His jaw tightened as she laughed at him, but he wasn't too sure why he cared. He didn't plan on becoming an actor. He just needed to pass so he could finish school.

"Laugh all you want, but I need to graduate so I can provide a good life for the kid." he said. Karen's brow furrowed.

"What are you talking about? You do remember why were here, right? We're not keeping it." Lip frowned. He hated that she still referred to their kid as 'it.'

It was then the potential parents showed up. Karen kept asking questions hinting at how rich they were, like cars they drive, how many bedrooms in their house, and their jobs. Lip found it hard to really concentrate on it all. He didn't really care. Yes, he wanted the baby to have a good home and family, but what he wanted most was to keep it. But since Karen was so adamant on selling it, he didn't have too much of a choice.

Before he knew it, the dinner was over and they were saying their farewells to the couple. Karen seemed happy, no doubt thinking about the payout once this was all over.

Lip said his goodbye to Karen before hopping on the subway, making his way back home. He had a scene to memorize and he only had what was left of the night to do it.


End file.
